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History of “The Institute”

​University of Paris

1932: Creation of the Institute for the History of Science (IHS), residing under the Paris Faculty of Letters. Appointment of the Institute’s own steering committee whose objectives include the following (minutes of the first meeting of the steering committee, March 4, 1932)

“To create an institute where professors of both the Faculty of Sciences and Collège de France will collaborate”

“To encourage students of the sciences and of history and philosophy to work together”

“To reject the division of knowledge between the natural sciences and the humanities”

1933: The IHS becomes IHST (Institute for the History of Science and Technology). The Institute is attached to five Faculties of the University of Paris and is placed under the supervision of the Academy of Paris (Rectorat de Paris). First president: Sébastien Charléty. The steering committee is expanded to accommodate 75 members among whom are included the following: Célestin Bouglé, Léon Brunschvicg, Lucien Febvre, Étienne Gilson, André Lalande, Marcel Mauss, Léon Robin, Alexandre Koyré, Émile Borel, Louis de Broglie, Léon Brillouin, Élie Cartan, Jean Perrin, Émile Picard, Paul Tannery, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

1932-1940: Director Abel Rey

1940-1955: Director Gaston Bachelard

1955-1971: Director Georges Canguilhem

1969: IHST transitions from residing under the supervision of the Univesity of Paris, to being taken on by the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne following the former institution’s dissolution.

1992: IHST becomes IHPST (Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology)

CNRS

1967: ERA "History and Philosophy of Science"

1997: URA "Philosophy of Science"

MERGER

2002: the CNRS unit assumes the title of IHPST, UMR 8590 (CNRS-Paris 1)